Kutztown Slaps Its Own Wrist College Football

Irv Hess felt a twinge of irony as he arrived at work yesterday morning.

As Kutztown University's athletic director and a member of the East Coast Conference Infractions Committee, he was about to slap his own wrist.

Early in the week, he had learned the Bears' Tracey Wright had played four football games while academically ineligible. Now, it was time to pay.

"As I told (Coach) George Baldwin, I can't slap wrists of other institutions and not do it on ours," Hess said yesterday. "Maybe I should stand in my own corner for a while."

That was the reaction of much of the Kutztown University community yesterday after word spread that their All-America canidate and pro-football hopeful was ineligible to complete the season.

Worse than the embarrassment was that victories over Cheyney and Mansfield may be turned into forfeits and drop the Bears record from 3-5 to 1-7.

Wright had dropped a course and fallen under the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 12-credit limit some four weeks ago.

Yet, Baldwin didn't learn of the situation until Monday, when he checked the University's computer to find the academic standing of another athlete.

"There was no way for me to know what happened," Baldwin said. "We had no safeguards.

"I was hoping he could be reinstated into the class. But he was apparently not able to do that at this point. I don't think Tracey realized what would happen if he dropped the course."

Wright has been unavailable for comment since Baldwin discovered the problem. But Hess said the computer in the athletics office had been down for three weeks. Thus, there was little chance coaches would find that Wright was carrying only eight credits.

But that can't stop Cheyney or Mansfield from gaining forfeit victories in contests they'd apparently lost.

"We've sent letters to the schools and indicated to the ECAC that we would take care of it with the Pennsylvania Conference," Hess said. "You offer the forfeit to them. In this situation, the coaches would have to decide whether they could have won the game without the athlete."

Cheyney University Athletics Director Andy Hinson said his school probably wouldn't accept a forfeit. But Mansfield was a different case.

"That's a little bit ticklish," Hinson said. "I would have some reservation about that. I can't see taking something away from an institution when it's an individual's problem."

Mansfield University Athletics Director Roger Maisner said he probably would have no choice in accepting the forfeit.

"It's an NCAA thing, which makes the decision totally up to Kutztown," Maisner said. "Irv called me this morning and that they'd probably be forfeiting. I'm not familiar whether we have to accept it or not.

"You're supposed to blow the whistle on yourself and then the NCAA usually tells you to forfeit."

Most likely, the final decision will be made during a meeting of the Pennsylvania Conference Board of Presidents Dec. 3 in Harrisburg.

"The actual decision will come after we have a recommendation from the directors of athletics," Kutztown President Lawrence Stratton said. "We'll say that these rules were violated and see what the ADs decide. If it's so decided,the games will be forfeited.

"Basically what happened was that Tracey dropped a course and didn't tell anybody. We're going to institute a system with the director of athletics and the appropriate people so this doesn't happen again."

The most sensible thought came from Cheyney, where Hinson said, "I told Irv that we should strongly recommend to the Board of Presidents that computer centers not accept drop slips from athletes without the signature of their coaches."